Dr. Barbara Bridges is a professor at Bemidji State University. Her appointment includes teaching Foundations of Education and Introduction to Education, as well as directing the unique Bemidji/Metropolitan Teacher Education Collaborative - a teacher licensure partnership program located on the four Metropolitan State University campuses. Her doctoral research focused on cross-cultural iconography — how cultures see themselves and represent themselves with symbols (art). As her students will testify, multiple perspectives and their implication on school pedagogy are a primary interest of hers.

Barbara's relationship with teachers, students and schools began in Maine where she started teaching in 1976. She has worked with teachers, artists and students since that time in Maine, Mexico, The Caribbean, and in Minnesota.

Barbara holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota where she taught and supervised student teachers for 5 years, interacting with over 50 metro area school and teachers. Barbara was named 1998 Minnesota Art Higher Educator of the Year by the Art Educators of Minnesota. She has published articles in a variety of journals and an 8 poster Mexican Arts timeline for Crizmac, Inc.

Dr. Bridges acts as the Coordinator for ArtsNet Minnesota. Barbara coordinated the development of and wrote curriculum for this interdisciplinary website as the Walker Art Center, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Frederick R. Weisman Museum, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, teachers and students from around the state contributed their knowledge and expertise. ArtsNet Minnesota is a constituency-based site and curriculum continues to expand.

Barbara Bridges is also an artist who uses the Modernist themes of rootlessness, lack of identity, solitude and social fragmentation to create positivistic Postmodern artworks focusing on a quest for self knowledge through symbolic identification and manipulation of traditional art materials and techniques.